Coconut Creek Facility Begins To Take Shape

COCONUT CREEK -- The place is a mess. Air conditioning ducts, exposed for all to see, zigzag across unfinished ceilings. Broken scraps of wood litter the barren floors.

Bare walls divide rooms in most of the building; in the rest, imagination must supply the barriers.

It is the city`s Government Center, a $9 million endeavor begun more than a year ago, and it`s expected to house City Hall in nearly four months.

``We`re at the turning point now,`` said John Vaughan, the project architect who has nurtured the building since ground breaking in May 1985.

Further evidence of progress is illustrated by the center`s roof.

Toward the southeast end of the building, sunshine glints off the pristine strips of copper that will cover the entire roof.

Moving toward the northwest, where roofing began only a few weeks ago, the copper dulls to a flat reddish-brown, the result of only a few weeks of intense heat and daily showers.

Eventually, the entire roof will weather into the same distinctive green patina as the Statue of Liberty.

Although they`re not yet packing boxes at the city`s current City Hall -- a cramped, haphazard conglomeration of refurbished mobile homes -- City Manager Dennis Mele expects to move into the new center sometime in November.

The contractor, Reynolds and Fordon Co. from Deerfield Beach, would not predict an exact completion date.

The center is supposed to be done Aug. 18, but Mele and Vaughan said it would be late. For each day over the deadline, the contractor is fined $1,000 a day.

The main building, which will rest at the edge of a lake on the southeast corner of Lyons and Copans roads, will house City Council chambers and offices, the city`s administrative arm and the Public Safety Department.

The Public Safety Department also features ``the most expensive space in this whole place,`` Mele said.

A tiny section of the department has been devoted to a two-cell jail, with walls and ceilings of solid, reinforced concrete and high-tech locking mechanisms.

The city can only detain prisoners at the jail for a maximum of six hours, but to comply with standards from the state Department of Corrections, the city invested $20,000 in the tiny jail area.

Another building, the combined public works and public utility building, sits on property just to the west of the main building and is expected to be completed in October.

A third building will house the city`s bulk supplies, such things as mulch, dirt and sand.

The three-building complex will accommodate the expanding needs of a growing community, Mele said.

With a population of 25,000 and growing, Mele said planning ahead is economically prudent.

``You only want to do this once. You want to build as much as you think you`re going to need in today`s dollars,`` he said.

``The whole idea of building this is so we have the space when we need it,`` Mele said. ``This city will eventually be three times as big as it is now.``